Producing and distributing premium TV entertainment content is more 'global' now than at any point in the history of the business. World Screen does an excellent job in following the news, trends and key players. It's a must-read for those in the business of global TV and brings us that much closer to prospective buyers and distributors of our premium content.

I think television is a unique form, in terms of storytelling. Having source material for these really dense, complicated, serialized dramas is a great way of world-building.

Dane Cook is one of the most exciting comedy stars to emerge on the scene in many years, and his ability to connect with audiences is truly remarkable. HBO will be able to give this gifted performer the broadest, most unrestricted showcase for his talent, and we're delighted to welcome him to the network.

One of the reasons to go to South Africa is because we can create great standing sets, both interior and exterior, and have the opportunity to create an actual water set outside, which will allow us to build a boat and probably part of another ship to be able to really bring that world to life.

Michael Bay and his team are experts in exciting tentpole-type film and television, and the combination of their film experience plus the great television writers that have come on will be really successful in bringing us something really unique. We are looking to put on these big canvas shows, and Black Sails is going to fit into that. The scripts have been terrific. Everything that we are trying to do is incredibly ambitious, and this is certainly in that category.

The expensive ones are for Starz. No. We decided, as part of our Encore strategy, to broaden and strengthen and help focus the Encore plexus by adding original programming.

How do you get the protagonists and antagonists together, in the same space, without somebody having to die? So, we ended up having to tell two distinct stories, which is never the ultimate way to create a great serialized drama. So then, of course, we had the tragedy with Andy [Whitfield], which made everything very difficult and pushed back.